I Want a Sequel: Top Ten Tuesday

The Broke and the Bookish have a weekly feature called Top Ten Tuesday and they invite anyone to participate. This week we are posting ten titles that we wish could have had sequels because we wanted to spend more time with the characters or the books were just that good.

What I did notice while grabbing covers is that Raina Telgemeier IS writing a sequel to Smile! Wahoo!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

The Past Week: 

Young Adult

Hattie Ever After reminded me of Anne of Green Gables somehow and I loved it. Shadows is a Robin McKinley book and I always love her books, but this time, it was just okay. I liked it, but wished I liked it more. I will review it later this week. Unravel Me was a great addition to Shatter Me. I am eager for the third book. Days of Blood and Starlight is another that left me wanting the next. They both played with my emotions.

Graphic Novel

Not a big fan of this one, but that may just be my weariness of the Lewis & Clark story always told without a lot of regard for the Native perspective.

Picture Books

The Longest Night is a beautiful telling of the Passover story. I also enjoyed reading Sand Island. We found it in an independent book store in Bayfield in sight of Madeline Island, one of the other Apostle Islands. I have not been to Sand Island, but have seen it from shore and am happy to find a book linked to Wisconsin history.

Surprise Find

I am not really a big football fan, though I watch a few games here and there and attend the local high school games, so I wasn't expecting much from this one. I found Tim's life pretty fascinating though and thought that the book was highly engaging with many pictures and vivid descriptions. Excellent for reluctant readers - especially fans.

The Coming Week: 

I am listening to Looking for Alaska, a book I have read in the past, but didn't love. I'm giving it another chance. I am also reading Adventures in Graphica, a professional book I have been working on for a few weeks. I have starting Dream Thieves and will also be cracking open If You Could Be Mine, Peace Warriors and If I Ever Get Out of Here. Have a great week full of reading!

My Summer Learning Continues

Menominee Forest

Menominee Tribal Enterprises

Replica at Mohican Library/Museum

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in the American Indian Studies Summer Institute through DPI and UW-Green Bay. It was a week filled with learning. The best part was interacting with people from all around Wisconsin with a common focus. We had amazing participants and the facilitators brought much knowledge and experience to the table. Field trips were available to both the Menominee and Mohican reservations. As a side note, did you know that The Last of the Mohicans was not quite as true as it could have been? The forests of both tribes were amazing. The Menominee are known throughout the world for their sustainable forestry. There are some beautiful spots on both reservations. One of my favorite afternoons was spent on the Pow-wow grounds of the Mohican reservation. A few participants sat on rocks out in a river and spoke with several tribal members. Making such connections was very meaningful. It will be an afternoon that I will remember for a long time to come.

Church and Mission School

Mission School

As part of our first visit to the Mohican reservation, we stopped to see the Red Springs Indian Mission School - part of the residential school era. It's part of a complicated bit of history. Children were taught to abandon their culture (often as a result of punishments) and assimilate to white society. They learned how to read and write, but were prepared for menial jobs as a general rule. There are Natives that speak of their time or their parent's/grandparent's time in the residential schools as very harmful to their family and culture while a few look back on it as a positive thing. Still others find it a mix of both positive and negative. If you are interested in learning more about the residential school experiences, here are some books that you may want to read:

Some of these titles are fiction such as Sweetgrass Basket and My Name is Not Easy, others are memoirs like Pipestone (reviewed here) and Fatty Legs, and still others are informational texts like Boarding School Blues and Boarding School Seasons. Whether fiction or non-fiction, all delve into the complexity of the issues surrounding the residential schools.

Our time was not all spent on residential schools though. Through the week, we looked at the history of the tribes in Wisconsin and explored Act 31. This is the educational act which requires schools to teach the history and culture of the federally recognized tribes in WI in addition to tribal sovereignty. We were given tools to help us do that in our home schools. We all created a plan for the coming school year and I am eager to begin. As a start, I wrote a blogpost over at Rich in Color about why we need diverse literature, how to find it, and how to evaluate what we do find.

If you are in the state of Wisconsin and are a teacher, I highly recommend that you take the opportunity to attend the summer institute. Another similar learning event is the annual Widening the Circle event in La Crosse, WI. This year it will be held November 7-10. It is not as in depth as the institute, but many similar topics are explored. I have enjoyed learning there every time I have gotten to attend. The community meals are fantastic too.

Thoughts on Writing

Strangely enough, I drive with my dog about 20 minutes each way when he has to be groomed. He goes to a lady who knows just how to take care of a Shih Tzu since she has about ten of them herself. He is always excited when we pull into her driveway because he knows he gets to visit with her crew and of course she gives him treats too. The nice thing about the long drive though, is that I can listen to a book or a podcast on the way.

Today I listened to the "Let's Get Busy" podcast with Matthew Winner and his guest Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. I loved learning more about Sudipta and hearing about her stories. As a participant in Teachers Write though, I paid close attention when she mentioned writing. She shared a quote from Jules Renard, "Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted." I love it! Sudipta explained that her books are part of a conversation between her and the reader. Writing is a different kind of conversation because there is this huge pause between the writing and the reader's interaction. So, the reader participates in the conversation, but doesn't interrupt the writer's flow of thought. I like that way of thinking about writing.

Now I just need to do more writing!

Treat Tuesday

Thanks to Niki Barnes at Daydream Reader and Shannon Houghton at Ms. Houghton's Class for the fun meme Treat Tuesday - I am muching on chocolate chip cookies and reading a wonderful book.

You all were inspirational. Yummy!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

I get the cover images from Goodreads and if you would like to see reviews, you may visit me there. I was out of town for over a week, so this will simply be a list of covers without comments since I read many titles over the two weeks.

The Past Two Weeks:

Graphic Novels for #Bookbootcamp

Young Adult Audio

Young Non-fiction

Poetry

Early Chapter Book

Picture Books

 

The last two images were from Amazon since pictures weren't available on Goodreads. They are great books that I read at the American Indian Studies Summer Institute. I had to run out and buy Mama's Little One. It came highly recommended by a high school student who grew up reading it.

The Coming Week:

I am reading Adventures in Graphica, listening to Days of Blood and Starlight, and am reading an ARC of Robin McKinley's Shadows. I am almost finished with the audio due to the extensive driving I have been doing recently so I should be finishing that this week along with the others. Unraveled is sitting in my living room taunting me and I will likely pick it up this week. I also have a bunch of ARCs I want to get to like The Dream Thieves, If I Ever Get Out of Here, Open Mic, and From Norvelt to Nowhere. It should be a great week of reading. What will you be reading?

American Indian Studies Summer Institute

This is the first Monday in a long time that I didn't do #IMWAYR, but I have been wicked busy. We were out of town this weekend having fun in Door County. We got to watch the half-ironman (my husband did well), hang out on the beach, and attend two Shakespeare productions. Super fun!

Now I am at a weeklong class in Gresham, WI learning about the federally recognized tribes of Wisconsin. This is a fantastic opportunity and I am sure to share some of what I learn here on the blog.

I love this opportunity. We even got the newest edition of Patty Loew's book Indian nations of Wisconsin. Very cool.